In 1927, our founder, Jack Cohen started selling ready-made glasses from a pushcart among New York City’s famous Orchard street merchants. As eyeglass sales
boomed, the Cohen family outgrew the pushcart operation and established a retail optical shop on the corner of Orchard and Delancey Streets naming it Cohen’s Optical.

Even though the eyeglass business was successful, Jack felt that there was more to glasses than just solving a person’s vision needs. With a belief that everyone should look good while wearing eyeglasses, the Cohen family began hand-dying the eyeglass frames different colors. Customers loved the new "stylish" frames, making Cohen’s the first optical retailer to sell fashion eyewear in New York City.

As Cohen’s became known for offering the latest fashion frames at the best prices, the company changed their name to Cohen’s Fashion Optical.